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Kalle said the problem on tarmac and Italian gravel has been getting the pace notes right. It's difficult when he's not driving the car himself when doing the recce. Meanwhile, there's guys in the Italian championship who have been driving the rallies for years, some for decades, they don't even need pace notes for every stage. And finally, he hasn't felt comfortable in the Peugeot. He says the engine lacks torque and feels like an S2000 car compared to the Skoda. But he's learning, he finished second in the San Marino gravel rally (but retired on the last liaison). But I agree that he needs experience and WRC2 is the right series for him for now. He's proven quick on snow and fast gravel roads, but ne needs experience on tarmac plus rougher and technical gravel rallies.

Once he stopped on a stage to let Andreucci past him to score more points as Andreucci's truly fighting for the championship. You could also speculate if the San Marino retirement from second position on the last liaison with Andreucci behind him was similar...

Right now Tidemand has contested in five rallies, leaving him only the mandatory Wales and Germany, and he can still drop the worst result (in theory, if he wins both, his Poland second place will not be counted). Veiby skipped Portugal and is skipping Germany as well, leaving him only Wales and 25 points to gain, not enough for championship winning. Suninen has done only three rallies. In theory he could still beat Tidemand by winning three more events with Tidemand scoring nothing, but I think his program consists only of Germany and Wales, and he'd probably be happier to do Wales in a WRC car. Camilli has done five events, no chance for championship either. Surprisingly, Kopecky could still be champion if he wins three more rallies and Tidemand scores nothing.

So Tidemand is quite confirmed champion, but all of the above mentioned are contenders for silver and bronze.

Despite the driving talent it's been a down year for WRC2 certainly. Everyone (with the exception of Tidemand) has seemingly had their focus elsewhere. And when you cut beneath that top level of drivers the quality drops off drastically.

Really a tough situation for Pontus if he takes a dominant title victory and no ones cares.

I'm interested to see what M-Sport's plans are for Camilli now, given they have a backlog of drivers. Has he improved like we saw from Elfyn this year?

I'd also assume Veiby will be doing a full campaign next year? Kalle will also bring some extra attention to the class which is a good thing.